Posted At Kentucky.com
BY : Tamara Lytle
Kentucky has joined with four other states to challenge the constitutionality of a Medicare prescription drug plan that Attorney General Greg Stumbo claims could cost taxpayers in the state more than $360 milion over the next five years.
Maine, Missouri, New Jersey and Texas also are plaintiffs in the legal action filed with the U.S. Supreme Court today against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Stumbo claims a so-called "clawback provision" of the federal prescription drug plan imposes an unconstitutional tax on Kentucky by forcing the state to involuntary fund the federal Medicare program.
Ten other states filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting that argument.
Since Jan. 1, states have been required to send the federal government monthly payments to help cover the cost of the Medicare Part D program, which is designed to provide more seniors with affordable prescription drugs.
"The federal prescription drug plan was touted as a measure to help seniors and save the states money," Stumbo said in a written statement. "Instead, it's failing our most vulnerable elderly and disabled citizens, and it's failing the taxpayers of Kentucky."
Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, traditionally did not pay for beneficiaries' prescription drugs. A 2003 law added a prescription benefit to be operated by companies with Medicare contracts.
The program went into effect Jan. 1 for those who signed up early and for millions who previously were covered by state Medicaid programs.
Start-up did not go smoothly. Pharmacies and patients complained about jammed phone lines, inaccurate computer lists of who was eligible for the program, and patients being charged hundreds of dollars for prescriptions instead of the set co-payments of $1 to $5.
